New Windows 7 users are reporting that upgrading to the new operating system …

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Thirty-one percent of users that have been experiencing trouble with Windows 7 have reported problems with upgrading to the operating system. The data comes from consumer helpdesk firm iYogi, which recently conducted a survey of more than 100,000 of its customers 500 (iYogi said they made a mistake in the original report and have since updated the number). The number means that the majority of problems iYogi's customers are experiencing have to do with Windows 7 installation, or the related application and data migration. These are fixable issues, but they don't paint a good first impression of the operating system. While Microsoft clearly still has work to do in the upgrade process department (though as noted in September 2009, it is faster than Vista's), this number is not as bad as it may first appear.

Most users who move to the next version of Windows do so by buying a new PC (about 95 percent). This means that the larger majority of users are already not affected by the biggest issue that is plaguing Windows 7; that's quite good news for Microsoft. Of course, the company needs to make sure these users don't get discouraged, and the company has help resources for that: via phone, e-mail, and as of October 2009, even on Twitter. Those who do have issues installing Microsoft's latest and greatest, however, are reporting that they prefer Windows 7 to Windows Vista, once they get past the upgrade kinks.

Twenty-six percent of users that have been experiencing trouble with Windows 7, the second biggest group, said that after the upgrade process was complete, they were confused about what had happened to programs like Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery. Redmond announced in September 2008 that it had stripped these programs out of Windows 7 and further confirmed in October 2008 that users would have to download Windows Live Essentials (Windows Live versions of Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety) if they wanted to use the successors to these applications on Windows 7. The successors are Windows Live versions that are more feature-rich and are updated separately from the operating system.

In November 2008, Microsoft told us that it would offer a download link to Windows Live Essentials within Windows 7 to encourage users to download the suite of applications. The link isn't particularly prominent, but it does come up ("Go online to get Windows Live Essentials") if you search on Windows 7 for any of the missing applications. Still, the extra step of having to download and install the applications was too much for some consumers.

Fourteen percent of users that have been having trouble with Windows 7 said that their issue was the Aero theme not running. From our own experiences, this is most often because the video driver is not up-to-date, or because the PC in question doesn't have a good enough video card. Most were in the latter's boat, according to iYogi. The result is that Windows 7 defaults to the Basic theme, which may not look as spiffy, but it works just as well as the Aero theme. Those were the top three issues reported (if you did the math, you should be at 71 percent of users); the remaining issues were in single digits:

Problems with installation: 31 percent

Missing applets or components: 26 percent

Aero theme is not running: 14 percent

DVD drive not found (this happens despite the drive being visible in the BIOS and the standard driver is working): 8 percent

Hidden extensions (Windows Explorer's default setting in all the versions of Windows is to hide file extensions, as well as system files and folders): 6 percent

Too many minidumps (By default Windows 7 keeps the last 50; minidumps are the memory images saved on the system when your PC crashes): 6 percent

Aero snap problems (Windows 7 has a handy new ability to move and resize windows, all in one movement, but sometimes it does not work as expected and can become annoying): 3 percent

iPhone won't sync with Windows 7 (usually with the 64-bit edition, the iPhone sometimes get recognized but then iTunes returns with the error 0xE8000065): 2 percent

Custom icons get changed with new theme (When a new Windows 7 theme is applied, custom icons can be lost): 2 percent

Taskbar problems (In Windows 7, it's difficult to tell at a glance whether an icon is a running application or a pinned shortcut): 1 percent

Again, it should be emphasized that this top 10 list is based only on users who were having issues with Windows 7 and sought help with iYogi; the percentages are only relevant to the group of users having difficulties in the first place. In short, Windows 7 is just like any other operating system (or any piece of software for that matter): it isn't perfect. The good news is that it doesn't appear to have any major show-stopping bugs (most are easy fixes, and others simply take time adjusting to). The general consensus seems to be that, although there are issues, getting past them is not as bad with previous Windows releases, and it's definitely worth the effort.